Identification and Characterization of Peruvian Native Bacterial Strains as Bioremediation of Hg-Polluted Water and Soils Due to Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in the Secocha Annex, Arequipa

Fernando Fernandez-F, Patricia Lopez-C, Camilo Febres-Molina, Pamela L. Gamero-Begazo, Badhin Gómez, Julio Cesar Bernabe-Ortiz, Alberto Cáceres-Huambo and Jorge Alberto Aguilar-Pineda
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Fernando Fernandez-F: Universidad Católica de Santa María, Urb. San José s/n, Umacollo, Arequipa 04013, Peru
Patricia Lopez-C: Universidad Católica de Santa María, Urb. San José s/n, Umacollo, Arequipa 04013, Peru
Camilo Febres-Molina: Doctorado en Fisicoquímica Molecular, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago 8370134, Chile
Pamela L. Gamero-Begazo: Centro de Investigación en Ingeniería Molecular—CIIM, Universidad Católica de Santa María, Urb. San José s/n, Umacollo, Arequipa 04013, Peru
Badhin Gómez: Universidad Católica de Santa María, Urb. San José s/n, Umacollo, Arequipa 04013, Peru
Julio Cesar Bernabe-Ortiz: Universidad Católica de Santa María, Urb. San José s/n, Umacollo, Arequipa 04013, Peru
Alberto Cáceres-Huambo: Universidad Católica de Santa María, Urb. San José s/n, Umacollo, Arequipa 04013, Peru
Jorge Alberto Aguilar-Pineda: Centro de Investigación en Ingeniería Molecular—CIIM, Universidad Católica de Santa María, Urb. San José s/n, Umacollo, Arequipa 04013, Peru

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 5, 1-13

Abstract: The water and soils pollution due to mercury emissions from mining industries represents a serious environmental problem and continuous risk to human health. Although many strategies have been designed for the recovery or elimination of this metal from environmental sources, microbial bioremediation has proven to be the most effective and environmentally friendly strategy and thus control heavy metal contamination. The main objective of this work, using native bacterial strains obtained from contaminated soils of the Peruvian region of Secocha, was to identify which of these strains would have growth capacity on mercury substrates to evaluate their adsorption behavior and mercury removal capacity. Through a DNA analysis (99.78% similarity) and atomic absorption spectrometry, the Gram-positive bacterium Zhihengliuella alba sp. T2.2 was identified as the strain with the highest mercury removal capacity from culture solutions with an initial mercury concentration of 162 mg·L − 1 . The removal capacity reached values close to 39.5% in a period of incubation time of 45 days, with maximum elimination efficiency in the first 48 h. These results are encouraging and show that this native strain may be the key to the bioremediation of water and soils contaminated with mercury.

Keywords: mercury removal; bioremediation; native bacterial strains; Zhihengliuella alba (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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